


Family is there to help

by NCSP



Series: Post-Endgame stuff [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death Fix, Fix-It, I need this so much, M/M, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Endgame, References to Norse Religion & Lore, we should open a support group
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 14:12:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18606154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NCSP/pseuds/NCSP
Summary: ** Endgame spoilers ******°After Tony’s death, his family tries to come to terms with what has happened.Luckily, Pepper and Morgan aren’t the only family Loki has





	Family is there to help

After the battle, Loki had moved in with Pepper and Morgan.

He had contemplated the possibility of going with Thor, leave the planet for good, but when he had looked at the little girl, trying to put on a brave face as all those adults recounted the deeds of her father, he hadn’t managed to.

He had thought that now that Anthony was gone, there was nothing left for him on Midgard.

He hadn’t been able to save Anthony, he hadn’t been strong enough to fix the damage the Gems had caused, and now his love was gone.

Loki had been convinced that with Anthony gone, Earth wouldn’t have required his presence any longer, but had been wrong; the moment his eyes had landed on the little girl, wandering around in her black dress with a lost expression in her big brown eyes, he had picked her up in his arms and led her away from the crowd.

Too many people were offering condolences to a child who still had no idea of what death really was.

He had led her in Anthony’s study and had remained there with her, sitting in Tony’s favourite armchair with the little girl in his lap, with no idea of how to answer the her question of why her daddy wasn’t there with them.

Pepper had tried to explain it, but she had been so busy with the arrangements for Anthony’s funeral and with her own grief, that she hadn’t really managed to. 

She had tried, but tears had interrupted her before she could help her daughter understand; what she hadn’t forgot – and Loki would have been forever grateful for that – had been to place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it in comfort. 

Loki couldn’t but admire Pepper. She had handled with the upmost grace the fact that she and Tony didn’t work well as a couple, and she had even accepted Loki. She had questioned him for a whole afternoon before letting him come close to her daughter, but Loki could easily understand that.

He would have done the same. 

From then on Loki had been allowed in their lives. Slowly at first, trying to handle the transition well, but they had started working well together, the strange family that they formed.

And then the world had crashed in front of their eyes.

In the end, Loki had managed to explain Morgan what had really happened, and the girl – after a few moments of disbelief – had burst out crying, hiding against Loki’s chest until her eyes had run dry and exhaustion had made her fall asleep.

It had been only in that moment that Loki had let all go.

Until that moment he had tried to be strong, to suppress everything as external eyes were watching, but now that he was alone, with Tony’s daughter’s asleep against his suit jacket soaked in her tears, he couldn’t hold back his sobs any longer.  
That was how Pepper had found them when she had looked for Morgan.

Loki had apologised for taking her away without asking Pepper first, trying to hide his red eyes behind his hair, but Pepper hadn’t been fooled; she had crouched next to him, tucked a loose strand of Morgan’s hair behind her ear, and then she had squeezed Loki’s knees.

She understood.

She understood that he was trying not to interfere with their family, and at the same time she knew that he was suffering like all of them.

Loki – this time with tears falling freely down his cheeks – had also told her he had explained Morgan what had happened, that her father had saved them all even if it had cost him everything, that Tony had done so to give them the chance to live, to be happy, even without him. That he had loved them so much that he had sacrificed himself to save them, and that he wouldn’t have been back.

Pepper’s eyes had turned glassy as Loki had summarised what he had told to her daughter – the words she hadn’t been able to say – and she had thanked him for that; Loki had taken upon himself the task of telling a child that her dad would have never returned, with the risk of having her hate him. 

That had been what had held Pepper back. Not only grief, but also the prospect of Morgan running away from her, looking for someone to tell her that her mom was lying… no, that would have been too much.

It had been in that moment, crying in Tony’s study, with Morgan asleep in Loki’s lap, that they had decided to remain together.

They had decided that Morgan couldn’t lose another parental figure in such a short time, and so Loki had moved in with them.

He hadn’t been able to help Anthony, he may have as well helped his daughter.

Moreover, he had to admit it: parting also from the little girl would have been devastating. She was the only thing of Tony he had left, he could have never abandoned her for real.

Not that that helped.

More than five weeks had passed, and Loki still wandered in the house like a ghost, not even daring to set foot in their bedroom; he usually read Morgan to sleep when Pepper didn’t, and they took turns handling her nightmares.

Morgan woke up crying, calling Tony, and all they could do was lull her back to sleep. When Morgan fell back to sleep, they didn’t know what to do; Pepper would have liked to remain with her the whole night to watch over her, but she had to think about managing the SI, so that Tony’s legacy may have survived for their daughter, and so Loki send her to sleep, promising he would have woken her up had Morgan had another nightmare. He usually spent the rest of the night sitting by Morgan’s bed, casting a spell over her so that she could have a dreamless night.

The worst part of the day was usually the afternoon, and that day made no exception.

Pepper was away at some important meeting, and Morgan was napping in her room.

Loki was alone, with no distraction at all.

He was sitting again in Tony’s armchair, trying to contain the tremor in his fingers, when he felt something strange make the air sizzle.

It took him less than a second to jump up, his magic ready to fight back or to teleport in Morgan’s room to pick her up and flee.

What he would have never expected to see was the familiar shape of his daughter forming before his eyes.

“Hela?” he asked in disbelief.

“Hello, Father.”

“What… what are you doing here?”

“I’m glad to see you too, Father.”

“Pardon my lack of manners, but this isn’t a good moment.”

“I can see,” Hela made an elegant gesture with her skeletal hand, pointing at Loki’s ashen completion and messed hair.

Loki’s lips tightened in the ghost of a smile, “Since you understand, would you mind telling me what are you doing here on Midgard?”

Hela’s split face morphed in something strange for the Queen of the Dead, and Loki could see something very close to empathy in her green eye, “Don’t you believe I only wanted to see my father?”

“You rarely abandon your kingdom, and I’m not in the right mood to guess.”

“Very well,” the living part of Hela’s face showed that hint of emotion again, and she snapped the fingers of her left hand.

The hand she never used, the hand that showed flawless pale skin, the hand that represented the other side of death.

“I think this is yours. He kept complaining you would’ve killed him if he didn’t come back.”

Loki’s mouth fell open at the sight of what was forming in front of him.

“I’ve tried explaining that it wasn’t actually possible, that humans don’t come back, but he didn’t listen and was starting to drive me mad, so I’ve decided to get rid of him,” Hela made a gesture with her left hand, inviting Anthony to step forward.

“Hey, Lokes,” Tony croaked, “Your daughter’s really nice.”

“No, I’m not. And I hope not to see you again,” Hela snorted, but before disappearing she cast a fond smile in her father’s direction.

“Tony…” Loki murmured, and before he knew it his legs had led him to Tony.

“Hey,” Tony welcomed him in his arms, “Your daughter’s right, you really look like shit.”

“That’s the first thing you tell me after dying and coming back to life?” Loki tried to snap back, but he was already laughing and crying at the same moment and adding a third action to that wasn’t possible, “You idiot! You could’ve waited for the blonde one and have her use the Gems! You. Stupid. Reckless. Idiot,” since he punctuated each insult with a kiss, he didn’t sound very convincing.

“The Sorcerer said there was one chance, Lo. You know it.”

“If you ever call that fraud a sorcerer again, I leave.”

“I died and you didn’t,” Tony shot him a smug grin that had Loki laughing once again as tears kept flowing down his cheeks.

“I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave them,” he admitted.

“And I can only thank you for that,” Tony said against his wet cheek, placing a kiss on the pale skin, “Hey, you see? I was right: I can talk myself out of everything.”

“You pissed off the Queen of the Dead, you can’t possibly be proud of that,” Loki laughed again, holding Tony’s face in his hands and kissing him all over.

“Am I here or not?”

“Thank the Norns you know the right people.”

Tony was about to find the right comeback to retain his position as Sole Cheater of Death thanks to his own wits, rather than admit that the fact that Hela was Loki’s daughter may have had something to do with that, when he heard a noise on the stairs.

There was only one person in the world who made all that commotion only for a few steps.

“Dad!” Morgan yelled, and she seemed about to jump in Tony’s arm, but at the last moment she stopped next to Loki and looked up at the mage with a confused expression in her brown eyes, “This real? People don’t come back.”

Loki nodded, and would have only liked to hug her and tell her that he had been wrong, that sometimes people came back. Luckily, it wasn’t his place to do so.

“I’m real, love,” Tony reassured her, picking her up, “Your dad is special and very real. I came back. For you. And for Loki. And for your mom, even though she can handle herself pretty well without me. Probably she has more spare time now. Well, had.”

“Tony…” Loki started, wanting to reprimand him for joking about death in front of his daughter who had had nightmares about that for weeks, but his voice failed him, and Morgan was laughing.

“Yeah, I know,” Tony kissed Morgan’s cheek and jostled her to have a free arm to wrap around Loki, “But now I’m back, and I won’t go anywhere.”

There were a few seconds of silence during which Tony and Loki just looked at each other, but Morgan’s trilling voice interrupted the emotional moment.

“Dad, are you a zombie now?”

“A zombie?”

“You were dead and you’re not. That’s what zombies do.”

Both adults started laughing, thanking the little girl for diffusing the tense atmosphere of the room.

“You could certainly do with some more brains, Anthony. Maybe you’ll find one that will tell you not to listen to your reckless ideas.”

“Then what would I need you for?”


End file.
